The First Prophecy (book 1)
I totally re-did this, and now it's a lot slower, and just in general better Introduction Seven cats stood around a pool, gazing down at fields and forest. A russet tom looked up from the pool, “it’s time” his voice echoed among the empty stars. A brown she-cat looked up at the tom and nodded her head. She flicked her tail as a silver she-cat, a sandy colored tom, and a golden tom stepped towards her. They leapt gracefully down to the earth below and with cautious glances, left each other. The brown she-cat followed trails of scents into a wide field, and eventually into a small dip in the fields with bushes and burrows. Invisible to the inhabitants of the camp she sniffed around, looking for the nursery, where she would find a kit to fulfill the prophecy. She quickly found it and stepped in; there she found a few kits. Her instincts told her to pick a very tiny orange tabby she-kit. Glancing around she attempted to make out the destinies of each kit. “This one will be a medicine cat, this one a young queen.” Feeling rushed to figure out which one would complete the prophecy, she quickly chose the little orange tabby she-kit. The brown she-cat stepped outside and glanced upwards, “I’m late!” Worry flooded the she-cat as she rushed to get back to the meeting place. The other three were just arriving, “So, how did it go?” she asked cautiously. “Very well, I found a kit named Snowkit in SnowClan” the silver she-cat mewed delightfully. “I couldn’t find any kit particularly young, but I did find one named Wavekit from WaveClan” the sandy tom announced as if he had just caught a deer. The golden tom let out a sigh, “I found a kit named Dustkit.” “We should get back, we need to send the next group down here,” the brown she-cat announced, feeling more confident than before. The four cats leapt up into the stars and called the next group down to take their pick of cats. Chapter 1 Flamekit rubbed her tiny face against her mother’s affectionately. In return Infernostripe, Flamekit’s mother, licked the tiny kit on the head. Flamekit curled up and purred at the warmth of her mother. Goldenkit pounced on Autmnkit, just to get a swat in the face back. Frozenkit stepped next to Flamekit “Hey Flame, wanna play battle?” Flamekit leapt up and squealed “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” and rushed outside to play “I’m the really really evil DarkClan warrior!” Frozenkit leapt at Flamekit “Die really really evil DarkClan warrior!” she screamed. Flamekit fell down the to ground and played dead. “Yay! I win!” Frozenkit squeaked. Suddenly, from under her, Flamekit leapt up and pounced on Frozenkit, “No you don’t!” Tornadokit suddenly knocked Flamekit off of Frozenkit’s back, “Can I join in the fight?” Tornadokit yowled. “Sure!” was Flamekit and Frozenkit’s reply to the offer. Bristleclaw suddenly stepped up to the two, “You three are almost apprentices, not tiny kits, why don’t you see if a warrior will take you out to explore the fields?” The three kits looked at Bristleclaw, and then at each other, “Uh….ok?” Flamekit bounded across camp and over to near Tabbystar, where Cloudheart, Flamekit’s father, was standing. He was talking to Tabbystar about something that sounded important. Suddenly Cloudheart glanced over his shoulder to see Flamekit standing there. Flamekit attempted to to run away, but was not able to until it was to late. Cloudheart gently meowed to her, “Is there something you want to ask me?” “Uhh….yeah, can you take me out into the fields, I want to see what it’s like out there.” “Sure!” Cloudheart meowed playfully “Follow me” Flamekit stumbled along behind Cloudheart, stopping and looking at anything. The world was so huge compared to the camp she had seen her whole life. They walked through the fields until it was getting close to dusk. “We should probably go back to camp now,” Cloudheart meowed. Flamekit nodded her head and began rushing toward the bushes and single tree that marked camp. When she reached camp it was dusk, and the other kits were heading into the nursery. She padded into the nursery and found a spot to sleep in the pile of leaves she called her nest. Flamekit quickly fell asleep next to her loving mother. Flamekit woke up to the sound of Tabbystar calling a clan meeting. Normally, kits would not leave the nursery to go to a meeting and would simply stay in the nursery and listen, but today was special, Flamekit, Goldenkit, and Autumnkit, were becoming apprentices. Flamekit rushed out of the nursery and next to the small boulder they called the High Stone. “Today is a special day for three little kits, today Flamekit, Goldenkit, and Autumnkit will become apprentices. Flamekit, please step forward.” Flamekit bounded forward and sat beneath the High Stone. “Flamekit, today you become an apprentice, until you earn your warrior name you will be known as Flamepaw. Your new mentor will be Ashtail, Ashtail, you have proven yourself to be a strong and determined warrior, you will mentor Flamepaw. Goldenkit please step forward,” Goldenkit also bounded forward and sat next to Flamepaw beneath the High Stone. “Goldenkit, today you become an apprentice, until you earn your warrior name you will be known as Goldenpaw. Your new mentor will be Needleclaw, Needleclaw, you have proven yourself to be a self-controlled and brilliant warrior, you will mentor Goldenpaw. Autumnkit, please step forward,” Autumnkit padded forward and sat between Goldenpaw and Flamepaw. “Autumnkit, you have chosen to train as a medicine cat, you will now be known as Autumnpaw. Your mentor will be Viperfang, tonight you will travel to the Moon Tree to meet MoonClan for the first time.” Autumnpaw’s eyes lit up with joyfulness as the three new mentors padded over to meet their new apprentices. “One last thing, Infernostripe, you may return to your warrior duties,” Tabbystar meowed. Infernostripe nodded her head and turned to Cloudheart. Cloudheart padded over to Infernostripe and licked her shoulder, which she did as well in return. Flamepaw looked up at Ashtail and padded towards him. “I’ll show you the territory, and familiarize it to you.” Ashtail flicked his tail for Flamepaw to follow and left camp. Flamepaw pleasantly followed Ashtail into the fields that made up their territory. “First things first, you need to know where the borders are, try to keep up with me, we’ll need to run a bit to see everything.” Ashtail bounded forward, rushing towards the horizon. Flamepaw followed after Ashtail, keeping up with him despite being a third of his size. Eventually the two cats came across an enormous, rushing river, nothing like the small streams they had in their territory. “This is the WaveClan border, this one won’t be too hard to remember, since this is the only river like this around, and you shouldn’t need to worry about accidentally crossing it, since there’s no good use in that, now lets continue on to the DarkClan border.” Ashtail began leaping through tall grasses growing on marshy ground. Flamepaw followed him intently, until the marshy land came to end and became swampy waters. She immediately stopped and called out to Ashtail, “Is there any other way to get there?” Ashtail stopped and looked behind his shoulder at Flamepaw. He began walking the other way through the swamp, “yes, follow me” was his reply. He stepped out of the water and shook his body like a dog to get rid of the water on his pelt. He flicked his tail again and headed back out onto the plains. Chapter 2 Flamepaw and Ashtail approached another swampy area, “This is the DarkClan border,” Ashtail explained. Suddenly a rustling came from the reeds across the small marsh. “DarkClan!” Ashtail yowled “Get help from camp!” Flamepaw dashed towards camp faster then she had ever run before. Halfway to camp she began to tire and her paw pads became sore, she pushed the thought of stopping to the back of her head and continued. When she finally reached camp she was exhausted and could barely speak, but was able to yowl “Ashtail is being attacked on the DarkClan border!” The moment she yowled Tabbystar leapt off of her perch in the tree and started giving orders. “Cloudheart, Rockysoul, Stonetail, Marshheart, Needleclaw, get over there! Flamepaw you stay here and rest! Don’t bring your apprentices, it could be Redstar!” Tanpaw and Dirtpaw were frantically looking in both directions, when Tanpaw darted over to Tabbystar, “I’m 11 moons, can I go? I’m almost a warrior!” “No! Full grown warriors don’t even get near Redstar’s power!” Tabbystar hissed furiously. In return, Tanpaw puffed her fur up in anger, huffed, and sulked into the Apprentice’s den. Tabbystar stepped over to where Flamepaw was standing, “Why don’t you gather some leaves from the tree and make yourself a nest, don’t worry about the battle, I’m sure it’ll turn out fine.” Flamepaw nodded her head and climbed the tree she had climbed dozens of times before to gather some leaves. She grabbed a mouthful and leapt down to the apprentice’s den. In the apprentice’s den she set the leaves down and fell down on them, not even bothering to arrange them nicely. Despite what Tabbystar had said, Flamepaw was full of worry about the battle, though, she fell asleep quickly. When she woke, it was still in the afternoon, and the patrol from the battle had just returned, as she had not been asleep that long. Flamepaw stepped out of the den to overhear the conversation with Tabbystar. “Tabbystar, we have some bad news…” Rockysoul solemnly muttered under his breath “…Redstar killed Cloudheart,” Flamepaw didn’t acknowledge what happened after that. She rushed to her nest and curled up, just wanting to escape from this world. Outside the clan was grieving Cloudheart, she normally would have been there, but traumatized from the whole day she stayed in her nest. It was dark when Tabbystar finally got to calling clan meeting, at this point Flamepaw didn’t really care who became deputy, all kept her ear peeled for who it was. At one point she heard Ashtail’s name called, “so Ashtail is the new deputy…” she thought to herself gloomily. After the meeting was over she finally got to sleep wishing the whole day was just a dream. During the night, Flamepaw’s dreams were filled with nightmares of the day, leaving her restless the next morning. The last few hours of the night Flamepaw gazed at the stars from the bush she called her den. She impatiently waited for dawn and got back to sleep, just to find herself being woken by Ashtail. “Flamepaw we need to go train, this is your first day of actual training.” His voice echoed like that of a cat lost in a cave, and she ultimately ignored him. Ashtail nudged Flamepaw and she finally said something “I don’t want to train today” she muttered. “You have too, I know your father died, but you’re an apprentice now, not a kit” Flamepaw covered her ear with her paw and looked the other direction. “Now!” “Fine” Flamepaw’s meow was muffled by the leaves her head was buried in. She slowly stood up and stepped outside. Ashtail began leaving the camp, heading towards the river that marked the border of FlameClan’s territory. Roughly 110 squirrel lengths from the storming river, Ashtail stopped. He sniffed the air and pointed his tail at a bush, rustling from a squirrel hiding inside. “Try to catch it” Ashtail’s voice was as quiet as the wind blowing through the grass so the prey wouldn’t notice. Flamepaw’s sharp hearing caught onto the whisper as she crouched down like she had seen warriors do countless times when a mouse wandered into camp, and swiftly pounced into the bush. The squirrel attempted to run away the moment he saw the blur of orange cat flying towards it, but got stuck between brambles for an instant, giving Flamepaw the chance to grab it and drag it out of the bush. Flamepaw proudly padded out of the bush to show Ashtail her first catch. Ashtail was giving himself a quick groom when Flamepaw appeared out of the bush. He smiled, seeing Flamepaw’s success at catching the squirrel despite not having had any previous training. Chapter 3 “Good job” the compliment felt like warm sunlight warming Flamepaw’s back after a rainy day, and in return, she smiled. “Now let me show you how to hunt properly,” Ashtail crouched down, closely to what Flamepaw did, but instead he held his tail downwards. Flamepaw acknowledged him starring and crouching towards a rock, “You’re going to catch that?” she growled in disgust. “Yes, Flamepaw, I’m going to catch the rock” Ashtail waited as if the rock was real prey and could run away, and then pounced swiftly on the rock. “That’s how you catch prey, not that hard now, is it?” Flamepaw nodded her head and looked around for something to catch. “You won’t find anything here, our talking has scarred all of the prey off, now why don’t we go try to find some.” Flamepaw and Ashtail began heading downstream, occasionally sniffing the air for prey. “What’s that smell?” Flamepaw asked curiously at a strange smell. Ashtail sniffed the air, DarkClan, it doesn’t smell like a warrior, more like a kit, we should find it” Ashtail began following the scent, and came to a nearby bush. Flamepaw poked her head in to find a small black kit, that looked to be close to being an apprentice. The kit had a slice across his face, close to his eye, that looked quiet fresh, as well as some other cuts and bruises. A piece of his right ear was dangling by a thread, and thorns covered his body. Flamepaw picked the kit up, and he let out a whelp in pain and fear. “Please don’t hurt me!” he shrieked. Ashtail looked towards Flamepaw, “If this is DarkClan’s kit, they don’t deserve him, those cuts look months old, and DarkClan’s medicine cat should have taken care of them by now. Let’s bring him back to camp” Flamepaw walked quickly away from the border, and slowed down once she was out of the tree cover. When Flamepaw and Ashtail arrived at camp, the first action they took was to bring the kit to Viperfang and Autumnpaw, who greeted them at the entrance. The instant Viperfang saw the kit, and his condition he rushed to get some poppy seeds to help the kit. Autumnpaw silently flicked her tail for them to follow her as she descended down one the tunnel that lead to the cavern where the kit would stay. Flamepaw sat the kit down on one of the beds of leaves, which seemed to comfort him. Viperfang soon appeared with the poppy seed, he sat them down on the ground and the kit swallowed them without hesitation. “He’s obviously a clan kit, he was so scarred, if he was wild he wouldn’t have swallowed those without hesitation.” The poppy seeds caused him to quickly fall asleep. Viperfang looked up at the Flamepaw, “So you have any idea how this happened, why this happened, or who this kit is? He’s definitely not a kit from our clan” Flamepaw sat down, “We were out hunting, and we picked up the scent of a DarkClan kit. Wanting to make sure it didn’t get lost, we follow the scent, and found him in a bush. We noticed some of the cuts were a moon or so old, so it was obvious the medicine cat wasn’t treating them so we decided to bring him back here to get some help” she explained. Viperfang nodded his head and continued trying to help the kit’s wound, and looked up at Autumnpaw “The poppy seeds won’t last long since I only gave him one, and he seems to be near the age of an apprentice, if not an extremely new one” Autumnpaw nodded here head, listening to him intently. “Flamepaw, when he wakes up, I want you to ask him where he came from, what his name is, why he’s so injured, and how old he is” Flamepaw patiently waited for the kit to wake, watching Autumnpaw and Viperfang take care of the kit to pass the time. A few minutes after the kit had been given the poppy seeds he woke up. He shrieked in fear of the three cats that stood around him. “Don’t move, you’ll hurt yourself” Viperfang meowed “And follow my instructions, I don’t want to hurt you or have you get yourself hurt.” “Are you the medicine cat here?” he asked, his voice stronger and bolder then Flamepaw had expected. Viperfang nodded and relief flooded the kit’s face, “Where am I?” the kit then asked. “You’re in FlameClan’s medicine den” Flamepaw told him. Fear then flooded the kit’s eyes “Please don’t hurt me!” “Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you, may I ask you, what’s your name?” Flamepaw meowed, trying to remain calm and keep the kit from freaking out. “I…I’m Blackkit” he whimpered. “Where do you come from, and how old are you?” Flamepaw then asked. “I’m from DarkClan, and I’ll be 6 moons in a few days” he answered “Who are you?” “I’m Flamepaw, why are you so injured?” “Redstar makes us fight, and if we don’t he hurts us and forces the medicine cat to not help us, but Batwing’s not a bad cat, she’d just die if she helped us” he whimpered, tears pooling in his eyes. Viperfang, Flamepaw, and Autumnpaw gasped in shock. “Don’t worry, we’ll help you” Viperfang told Blackkit. “You’re so much nicer than Redstar told us you’d be” Blackkit mewed. “Now you need to rest or those injuries won’t get any better” Viperfang advised. Flamepaw left the den and grabbed a rabbit from the pile, and began heading towards the apprentice’s den. Along the way, Tanpaw stepped up next to her, “So what’s this I hear about a new kit.” “Nothing, you don’t need to worry about it” Flamepaw bumped Tanpaw with her tail, edging her to go away. “Well, anyways, have you heard?” “Heard what?” “Bristleclaw moved into the nursery today, she’s expecting a litter of two” “Ok, well she-cats move into the nursery quiet often, there’s nothing special about that.” “But it’s ''Bristleclaw, ''no one expected her to have kits.” “She has had a mate for a while now, it’s not that big of a surprise, now I’m going to go eat this rabbit now.” Chapter 4 It had been three days since Flamepaw had found Blackkit, and he had basically moved into FlameClan, Bristleclaw was even starting to treat him like her own kit, and he was getting ready to become and apprentice in FlameClan. Some cats suspected Tabbystar would wait until his injuries had healed, even though Redstar confirmed this was the day he was supposed to become an apprentice. Redstar had surprisingly handed him off to FlameClan, and seemed to be happy about it. Blackkit was heading over to Viperfang for his morning herbs, and Flamepaw was waiting for Ashtail to stop chatting with Tabbystar so they could go do some battle training. Tabbystar stepped onto the High Stone, “Cats of FlameClan, gather here for a clan meeting.” Flamepaw bounded over, and took her seat in front of the High Stone. “Today, we have three new apprentices, but a few apprentices are ready to obtain their warrior names, Dirtpaw, you have trained for moons, and it is your time to become a warrior. Your new name will be Dirtheart, I believe you will be a wonderful warrior. Pinepaw, you as well have trained for moons, and it is your time to become a warrior. Your new name will be Pinefang, I believe your kindness can bring you many places in life.” Dirtheart and Pinefang smiled pleasantly as the cats of the clan congratulated them. “More toms…” Flamepaw muttered quietly, so others wouldn’t notice. “Now, Tornadokit, Tunnelkit, and Dustkit, please step forward.” The three kits bounded over with great joy and sat together beneath the High Stone. “You three are ready to become apprentices, your new names will be Tornadopaw, Tunnelpaw, and Dustpaw, Tornadopaw you will be mentored by Dirtheart, Tunnelpaw, you will be mentored by Pinefang, and Dustpaw, you will be mentored by Stonetail.” Dirtheart, Pinefang, and Stonetail stepped forward to greet their new apprentices. Suddenly, Ashtail appeared behind Flamepaw, “Now that the ceremony is over, I need to teach you how to fight.” Flamepaw leapt in surprise, then nodded her head. Ashtail began heading out of camp with Flamepaw following closely behind him. “So where’s this training pit I’ve heard of?” Flamepaw asked, not knowing what else to say. Ashtail leaned his head to the right, “Over there, it’s a large, sandy dip in the ground that is great for battle practice.” Flamepaw nodded her head, she was excited to see that area of the territory, as she had spent her whole time when she was out of camp, on the left side. The two cats continued on, with an occasional leap from Flamepaw to catch up. When they arrived at the pit, Flamepaw bounded into the pit and skidded on the soft sand. She dragged her paw through the sand, as it was the softest thing she had ever felt on her paws in her whole life, much softer then the rocky soil, scratchy grasses, and thorny bushes that made up the rest of the territory. Ashtail leapt into the sand and skidded over to where Flamepaw was being amazed at the soft sand, “it’s soft, now, isn’t it?” Ashtail’s voice startled Flamepaw, and she instantly looked at him “Yeah, have you ever felt anything softer?” she questioned curiously. “In FlameClan’s territory, no, but the snow in SnowClan and the grasses in WaveClan are much ofter then this sand, not to mention DustClan is covered with this stuff.” “So DustClan has a better territory then us…” Flamepaw sighed. “No, their sand is covered in cacti, which are green plants with sharp thorns on them, much sharper and longer then the thorns on our thorn bushes” Ashtail explained “Now we need to start training. The first move I’ll teach is very basic, first you leap toward your opponents faces, then you dodge to the side and rip your claws across their underbelly, now you try it on me, but make sure your claws are sheathed” Flamepaw nodded her head and sat down. “What are you doing!” Ashtail hissed in anger and Flamepaw’s defiance. Then, out of blue, Flamepaw leapt toward Ashtail, dodged to the side, and swiped across his underbelly. She then proceeded to try to leap on his back, but failed, and fell to the ground with a hard thump on the soft sand. “You ok?” Ashtail looked down at Flamepaw in worry. “Yeah” Flamepaw stood up, “Well, how was that?” she asked. “If your talking about the falling part, not so great, but if your talking about the move part, that was amazing! You actually caught me off guard! Now, why don’t we practice it a few more times, and head back.” Flamepaw stepped away from Ashtail and leapt at him, dodged to the side, and swiped at his underbelly three more times. The two then headed back to camp to get some rest and prey. The ground covering the rest of the territory was much more rough on Flamepaw’s paws then the sand in the training pit. Flamepaw stepped away from Ashtail and leapt at him, dodged to the side, and swiped at his underbelly three more times. The two then headed back to camp to get some rest and prey. The ground covering the rest of the territory was much more rough on Flamepaw’s paws then the sand in the training pit. Chapter 5